Museums in Glasgow are ready to return seventeen looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria in one of the largest-ever repatriations of cultural artifacts approved by the UK constitution. The repatriation also includes the return of seven smuggled Indian antiques and twenty-five Native American cultural items from the Lakota people.

The Benin bronze objects were taken from the ancestral altars at the Royal Court of Benin by the British troops during the British Punitive Expedition of 1897. The stolen treasures include sculptures, an ivory mask, plaques, and more. Many of which now reside in the world-biggest institutions, most notably the British Museum.

The move to repatriate the stolen treasures came after the Glasgow Museum councils approved the return of the requested cultural artifacts to their originating communities following the recommendations by the members of the Council.

Speaking on the reasons for the repatriation, the head of museums and collections at Glasgow Life, Duncan Dorcan said, “By addressing past wrongs, we believe these returns will, in a small way, help these descendant communities to heal some of the wounds represented by the wrongful removal of their cultural artifacts, and lead to the development of positive and constructive relationships between Glasgow and communities around the world.’’

Recall that Aworanka also published how different western institutions have begun to return the stolen Benin treasures to Nigeria. Some of these include the Okpa (a cockerel figurine also called ‘Okukor’) and the Uhunwun Elao (an Oba's head). Both artifacts were returned to the traditional palace of the Oba of Benin, in Edo state, Nigeria, from the University of Cambridge and the University of Aberdeen respectively. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York also returned two other bronzes to Nigeria.

Moreso, the French government returned twenty-six artifacts and artworks to Benin late last year, comprising the doors of the Palace of Abomey, royal thrones, and warrior dance staff taken by French colonial soldiers in 1892.

Now, institutions like the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art have also taken the initiative and agreed to return the looted African artifacts in their collections to their original communities.

Likewise, Berlin Ethnologisches Museum in Germany has promised to return more than 500 artifacts belonging to the Kingdom of Benin, most of which are bronzes that ended up in the museum after they got stolen during the colonization of Africa.